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When I print shipping labels on FedEx's website, using the site's purple "Print" button, I have the option to check a box for a receipt too. I always check this box.

When it works properly, the label prints on a Fedex-supplied Zebra label printer. This happens reliably and there's no print dialogue, it happens immediately after clicking the website's print button. I think it uses Java to do this. A second later, the standard Chrome print dialogue comes up so I can send the receipt to a standard office printer.

When it doesn't work (which is about 60% of the time), the label itself prints fine, but the chrome print dialogue never appears for the receipt.

I can work around this but I'd much rather solve it directly. If it works 60% of the time, I don't see why it can't work 100% of the time. Any ideas on what might be the issue?

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  • This only happens with Chrome? Have you tried with all extensions disabled? Have you reported the problem to FexEx?
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 22, 2014 at 15:54
  • @Ramhound I did try contacting fedex but the support guy was only interested in giving quick workarounds, but said he'd forward it up the chain. I'm not sure about other browsers, wouldn't surprise me if it's fine in others, but I hate to switch browsers. I'll try disabling extensions to see if one of them is the culprit. Good idea.
    – CreeDorofl
    Commented May 23, 2014 at 21:35
  • Try a different browser while your at it.
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 23, 2014 at 23:30
  • did this get resolved? I'm having a similar problem
    – 1990clb
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 15:04
  • @1990clb yes it did, possibly due to people complaining to fedex. I mentioned that chrome specifically was flaking out, they said they'd forward it to their tech team. About two weeks later, it started working, I get a print dialogue 100% of the time. Possibly chrome also updated quietly.
    – CreeDorofl
    Commented Aug 10, 2014 at 14:17

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This issue 'resolved itself', possibly because fedex changed the coding on their website to work more reliably with chrome. Or else chrome quietly updated and is now more compatible with the fedex site's print function.

There ws a separate issue that may be related, for a while the Zebra label printer stopped working with newer versions of Java, so if you updated Java when prompted, you had to go to the Java website, download an older build, uninstall the new build, then install the older one. Fedex tech support walked me through this.

As of around 8/1/2014 or so, this issue was fixed by Fedex, and now the label printer works with the newest version of Java (In my case Version 7, Update 67). So feel free to update Java and use chrome with the fedex site.

In fact, I now have an ongoing issue where Firefox won't work with it because Java simply doesn't appear in the list of installed firefox plugins. I guess I'll research that but if anyone has struggled with both chrome and firefox, and they eventually got a modern version of Firefox working, I'd appreciate any tips.

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